The Hungarian Forint

Do you know what 400,000,000,000,000,000,000 Pengoes are worth? At the end of its brief life as coinage in 1946, that was the value of 1 Forint… Hungary suffered a period of hyperinflation in the mid-20th century, surpassed only by Yugoslavia a few years later. This wave of inflation began at the end of the war, when Hungary decided to pay off its debts by printing paper money. To begin with, the government tried to save face by introducing the Milpengoe (=1,000,000 Pengoes) in May 1946, and then the Bilpengoe (=1,000,000,000,000 Pengoes) in June of the same year, but the effort failed.

The Hungarian word, Forint, derives from the word Florin, originally a coin minted in Florence. The Forint is subdivided into 100 Fillers, the name of which comes from the Austro-Hungarian word Heller, derived in turn from the German word vier meaning four.

Although Hungary ceased to be a monarchy after WWII, its former great national kings continue to appear on its banknotes: Mátyás (1443-1490), St. Stephan (967-1038), Róbert Károly (1288-1342), Ferenc Rákóczi II(1676-1735).

Current 10 and 100 Forint coin issues carry a coat of arms, and the 20 Forint coin is decorated with a Florentine Lily motif. Hungarian money has sometimes been minted in very original styles, such as the unconventional issue of square or rectangular commemorative coins, and even the issue of one coin as a semi-circular disc.